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L. The list of official nominations for the variant-by-committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anonymous wrote on Sat, May 3, 2003 02:04 PM UTC:
Diagonal Bypasser: This is one of the better means I've seen of 'taming'
non-replacement capture -- the long move ensures that a careful setup is
needed before the bypasser can capture anything at all.  But actually I'm
concerned it's a little bit TOO weak in a game that features the Tower of
Hanoi.  Since it's almost always going to be beneficial to split the
Tower up as much as tempi allow (eight extra pawns are better than a
queen, so just think about eight Commoners...), the board will probably
get pretty crowded, leaving the bypasser all but paralyzed.

Roc: Camel + another leaper seems to be to be better suited for a larger
board, or at least a less crowded one.  There's a fool's mate on
white's second move. Those camel leaps are dangerous on this board, and
with another leaper to help set them up...

Hopping bishop: Ordinarily I would hesitate before putting something this
powerful (somewhere between rook and cardinal) as a 'minor' piece, but
with a rook-class knight, half-knight pawns, and a (who knows? maybe
double strength?) queen, this end up playing very well with the others. 
The dangerousness of the leap-rider will be lessened on the crowded board
I expect for this game.

B + lame camel: Not necessarily an inspired piece... but certainly
functional in its role.  It should be about rook value for most of the
game, which does seem to be in keeping with the standards set by our
previous choices.  And it does include the theme movement.

Dualist monk: A piece that splits slows the game down, but we already have
the Tower.  On the other hand, doublemoving speeds the game up.  On the
third hand, its short range makes it entirely defensive.  I have no clue
whether I like this piece or not.

Chaplain: Perhaps the most conservative color-changeable bishop
imaginable, and it seems to me to be a good implementation of a
color-changeable bishop.  My only concern is that its promotion abilities
imply the potential to promote to another Tower of Hanoi, just at that
point in the game when the Tower fragments were beginning to finally get
cleaned up.

Sliding bishop: Another good implmentation of a color-changeable bishop. 
I guesstimate its strength as slightly less than rook, which seems about
right for this game.  And it does include a non-capturing lame camel. :)

Crooked picket: A neat way of 'taming' the cardinal-class crooked bishop
down into a more minor piece role -- my guesstimate is that it weighs in
at just under rook-strength, like many of the other pieces here.  And it
does include a lame camel movement as part of its move, for those who are
interested in voting the theme.

At this point, I like the sliding bishop, the crooked picket, and the
hopping bishop, though I have no idea what order those will be in by the
end of the month, and the dualist could easily find its way onto that list
as well.